ToyTalk

All aboard the Moshi Bus

2012-02-10T11:46:53Z

Moshi Monsters fans near Cardiff and Bristol are in for a treat this half-term, as the magical Moshi Bus continues its UK tour.

Following great success over the Christmas holiday, the Moshi Bus is back for the half-term holiday and will be visiting the Retail Park, Bristol, followed by the Capital Shopping Park in Cardiff.

Your own little Moshlings will be able to draw and colour-in Moshi Monsters, model their little monsters out of clay, trade Moshlings and cards, meet Furi and enter competitions and prize giveaways to win Moshi merchandise.

“The children love seeing Moshi being brought to life like this,” said Tony Crouchman, who runs the Moshi Bus. “If the Christmas tour was anything to go by, we expect a bus overflowing with fun and activity throughout half-term week and look forward to meeting the Moshi fans there.”

The Moshi bus will be at Unit 5, The Retail Park, Bristol (BS34 5TX), from Saturday 11th until Tuesday 14th February and will then visit Cardiff’s Shopping Park (CF11 8AZ) from Thursday 16th February until Sunday 19th February, between the hours of 10am and 5pm on each day and 11am and 5pm on the Sunday.

New vehicles from WOW Toys

2012-02-10T11:29:54Z

As the nights get lighter and spring shows the first tentative signs of its imminent arrival, WOW’s thoughts have turned to the great outdoors, and all the fun things we will be able to do when the temperatures start to rise.

For some father-and-son teams, nothing beats fresh air, the open road and only a sheet of canvas between them and the stars. Two such people, heading off on an adventure, are the little figures in the new Ryan’s Road Trip set.

Dressed the part – son in shorts and trendy jacket and father in a slightly embarrassing shorts and hat combo – the figures can enjoy all the features of their trusty camping set.

Priced around £16.99, Ryan is a friction-powered car with enough spaces for father, son and their friendly dog to go along for the ride. A magnetic hook on the car attaches to a trailer and the tent can be packed up onto it, as well as a little campfire to sit round later, swapping ghost stories or singing Kumbaya.

Children aged 18 months upwards will find the toy extremely safe and wipe clean as they enjoy all the role play opportunities offered by the set.

Also new, Fire Rescue Rory is a shiny emergency helicopter, designed to help children aged 18 months upwards act out scenes of a daring rescue.

With a realistic engine sound, the toy is completely battery free. The stretcher can be picked up by the helicopter using a magnet which connects on touch and disconnects by turning the search light around. A simple pull on the trigger makes the blades spin, ready to chopper the fire victim away from the scene of the emergency.

Priced around £16.99, the four piece set includes two removable figures – one to fly the helicopter and one to be rescued in a stretcher by Rory and pilot. A clicking rear rotor adds an extra dimension of play.

Finally, Farm Buddy Benny is a quad bike who is built to help out on with all the odd jobs on a farm.

His driver is a little farmer figure, displaying the ‘thumbs up’ position to indicate that he’s safe for children aged 18 months upwards to play with without fear of him being swallowed.

Priced around £9.99, Benny not only transports the farmer, but also his trusty sheepdog all around the farm.

As with all WOW toys, no batteries are required to activate fun features – in this case, a gentle rocking motion as he speeds around.

Mittens the Kitten joins Lamaze

2012-02-09T16:21:01Z

Lamaze has added two new characters to its Play and Grow range. Mittens the Kitten is a cute little orange kitty with a cheeky expression to delight babies from birth.

His brightly coloured body is covered in patterned fabrics and interesting textures and provides an auditory and sensory experience for babies as they grow.

Priced around £11.99, Mittens holds a plastic ring with ‘busy beads’ on it, for babies to explore as they develop their manual dexterity, and the little knots in kitty’s legs should keep their fingers busy on a long car or buggy trip (the quick-release clip allows you to take the toy out and about with you).

Also joining the range is Huey the Hedgehog. He looks like a prickly chap, but when babies touch his spines they will find them to be soft and friendly.

It looks like Huey’s having a bit of trouble with his teeth as he’s holding onto a teething ring, and teething babies might find themselves having a sympathetic bite on the other end.

With a quick-release clip on this one too, it’s priced around £10.99.

Three other characters in the Play and Grow range have also had a bit of a makeover in time for spring. Princess Sophie now contains new colours and even more nice textures for a tactile experience, and she’s priced around £10.99.

Mortimer Moose provides big antlers for babies to teethe on, and he’s been revamped with an array of new colours. Priced around £10.99, he has a quick-release clip and can be used from birth.

Flutterbug, one of the range’s best-sellers, has also had a bit of a spruce up and is now available for around £10.99 in new colours and quality brightly coloured fabric, as well as all his usual features to delight a baby’s senses.

Moshi Monsters Tween Ready Bed

2012-02-09T13:15:23Z

Worlds Apart’s new range of products featuring the loveable Moshi Monsters includes a colourful new solution for little guests on sleepovers. The Tween Ready Bed is an inflatable mattress and cover all in one, and can even be clipped up to turn it into a comfy kids’ seat.

The Flip Out Sofa has the same brightly coloured design, featuring the colourful Moshi monsters, and can be used as a comfortable inflatable seating area or flipped open to turn it into a lounger.

Both are simple to inflate and can be stored away easily in between uses. Each of the products in the Moshi Monsters line also comes with a secret code to allow children to unlock a feature of the Moshi Monsters world online.

New starter sets from LEGO DUPLO

2012-02-09T13:15:38Z

Two new starter sets from LEGO DUPLO introduce children to the exciting world of bricks, and help them with other early skills at the same time.

The Creative Sorter is priced around £17.99 and is a sturdy plastic bucket filled with brightly-coloured bricks. The lid is made from sorting plates, through which young children can sort different shapes and colours. This activity should help with colour and shape recognition in young children, as well as giving them opportunities to practise their manual dexterity.

As they place a wide variety of basic and rounded bricks into the colour-coded sorting plates, they can build various different animals: an elephant, parrot or giraffe – and of course, they can just use the bricks to build any number of their own creations too.

The My First Build set is priced around £19.99 and comes with a really simple building guide to help young children visualise and then build their first basic items, such as a simple shop, house front, car and petrol station, using the vibrant bricks.

Other interesting pieces including a window, cash register and chair add the finishing touches. A man and a dog are also included in the set as well as lots of the chunky bricks.

Ten to watch from Toy Fair 2012

2012-02-03T10:40:32Z

Every year we try to condense the thousands of new products that were on display at the Toy Fair into a top ten – and it doesn’t get any easier.

This year we saw some really outstanding new toys and games and we’ve tried to cover the entire scope of the toy world in this round-up of the ones we felt just had that little bit extra.

Just don’t ask to pick our overall favourite. That really would be impossible.

Redakai
Spin Master
This new trading card game introduces an exciting new twist, Blast3D, which adds a dramatic third dimension to the transparent cards, which are stacked together to boost offensive and defensive capabilities.
Due out: Spring

Sonic the Hedgehog
Meccano
Meccano continues its foray into licensed properties with this eye-catching range featuring the manically speedy hedgehog. It’s like a videogame – in Meccano form.
Due out: Autumn

Amelia, Your Victorian Girl
A Girl for all Time
Following on from the success of Matilda, Your Tudor Girl, Daughters of History has stepped into a different time period to develop Amelia, who will come complete with a novel and period clothes.
Due out: September

Malevolence
LEGO
The vast LEGO stand contained more than a few gems, but the Malevolence (the runabout of General Grievous) looked simply stunning. One to build and display with pride.
Due out: TBA

Stone Age
Playmobil
Yes, the Future Planet sets look great, but there’s something about the simplicity of the Stone Age range that appeals to us. This is traditional Playmobil fun, complete with woolly mammoth and sabre-toothed tigers.
Due out: Out now

Rivetz
Interplay
This cool craft range uses a rivet gun to construct models from lightweight card. Pre-cut and decorated, the card pieces assemble into a dragon, hornet or racer and look fabulous.
Due out: July

Tag Solar System Adventure Map
LeapFrog
Last year’s Interactive World Map has been given a cosmic makeover and now offers more than 40 activities and games based around our solar system. Beautifully illustrated, space-age fun.
Due out: TBA

Deadly 60 Character Building
Character
The Character Building range welcomes a new licence in the shape of Steve Backshall and the creatures from CBBC’s brilliant Deadly 60. The first wave of foil-bagged micro-figures will include three versions of Steve and lots of deadly critters (known as ‘micro-deadlies’).
Due out: TBA

Buck, Buck, Moose!
Learning Resources
This lively colour-matching game is enhanced by utterly charming artwork of Buck the forest ranger and the all-important Moose, who is depicted on the cards in a variety of activities.
Due out: Out now

Walter the Waddling Penguin
Lamaze
The always delightful Lamaze range has an especially cute addition this year. As his name suggests, Walter is a pull-along penguin who waddles along on bead-filled wheels. His mixture of colours, sounds and textures is sure to delight babies and he’s suitable from birth.
Due out: May

Toy Fair Temptations

2012-02-02T18:18:12Z

For those with a passion for gadgets and gizmos, London’s Toy Fair has become one of the must-do events of the year. And this year, despite (or perhaps because) of the economic downturn, January’s show was more popular than ever.

It would seem that, in these days of double-dip depression, we’re all in need of a little retail therapy, and what could be more fun than toys that nurture your inner geek? Luckily there were lots to choose from and my first stop was Revell, whose scale models have been keeping us big kids entertained for decades.

Revell still produces the superb tank, plane and car kits the company always has, but things have moved on in the modelling world. These days, you don’t have to set aside a modelling table and several hours every evening to indulge those kit-making urges.

EasyKits offer that instant modelling fix we always dreamed of, with a range of ready-painted, clip-together models. Prices start around £6.50 for the smallest of the new Star Wars models, the 22-piece Sith Infiltrator, while the 45-piece Podracer comes in at £29.99.

However, as any modeller will tell you, these days remote control is really where it’s at, which is lucky as Revell has just won the Best New Toy Award (Hobby and Model Category) for their Control Outspeeder (pictured), which, at around £19.99, is a corking beginner-level stunt car, with a PlayStation style controller that, as a gamer, was a dream to use.

Staying with kits, another range that had my fingers twitching to have at ’em were the Dr Who Kitt-O paper construction figures from Together Plus. These fun ‘flatpacks’ come in two sizes (12 cm and 30 cm) and, at just £1.50 for the regular and £7.99 for the super size, they’re cheaper than a lunchtime cappuccino.

Series One includes: Madame Vastra, the Weeping Angel, a Silurian Soldier, a Cyberman, Sontaron and Vashta Nerada. Two more all-new characters are still under wraps.

Together Plus has also commissioned some rather special limited edition Pete Fowler figs. Inspired by 2000 AD’s Nemesis the Warlock, these absolutely to-die-for sculpts are sure to fly off the shelves.

Nemesis is limited to 2,000 units in four different colourways, while his iconic ship, the Blitzspear, is limited to just 100. As Dredd himself might have said, ‘Grud on a Greenie’!

If you’re a console lover, app fanatic, or simply like toys that light up and shout at you, then Toy Fair always has lots to offer, but sometimes it’s nice to get back to basics. So I was pleased to see that dice, cards and board games haven’t gone out of style. In fact, top of my wants list were three brainteasers from University Games.

The first two – Callisto (£19.99) and The Hidden Force (£24.99) – are strategy games, simple to learn, but challenging enough to appeal to the serious gamer and wonderfully addictive.

The third, Shut-The-Box (available in three versions, priced around £17.99, £26.99 and £55.99), is a raucous dice game from the days of yore. And, like all of the Front Porch Classics range, it comes in a period style wooden box that brings out all my collecting instincts. I really must have them all.

Although football’s not usually my cup of tea I also found myself chuckling at Drumond Park’s Foooz – a new take on the old tabletop football game, which I can see going down a storm in offices.

Mind you, I think I’ll probably repaint my figures as Stormtroopers. That way I can imagine that they’re punting planets into the net rather than some silly pig’s bladder.

For those who like their toys a little more high-tech, though, Toy Fair had lots to tempt too. Innovation First’s Hexbugs took the UK by storm in 2011, with a range of funky robot critters that have been entertaining those of us old enough to know better all year.

For 2012, there’s a new collection of micro-bots including the glow-in-the-dark Hexbug Nano and the wonderfully creepy Larva, which slithers around like some Hammer Horror creation.

Innovation First is even planning special seasonal releases, so keep an eye out for Easter and Halloween themed ’bots.

And now I know that this year’s Toy Fair was a really good ’un, as I’m almost out of space and I haven’t even mentioned LEGO! This year sees the release of LEGO DC superheroes, including a pow-tastic Batcave (£69.99) that comes with five minifigures: Bruce Wayne, Batman, Robin, Poison Ivy and Bane. A Marvel range will be coming out in April.

And what about Bluw Toys’ Egg Bods – collectible egg-shaped figures which come with interchangeable heads so you can make your own Hello Kitty-Transformers Frankensteinian creations? OK so they’re really for kids, but I won’t tell if you won’t.

And then there’s Meccano’s new licensed property playsets. Meccano hasn’t done licensed products before, but the marriage of this much-loved name to a range of hot new brands looks like being a sound move.

I’m already making shelf space for the fabulously fun Rabbids range, and the Locust V Delta Squad battleset, based on the third-person shoot ’em up, Gears of War.

Toy Fair? Let’s just call it Nerdvarna.

Paula Hammond is a freelance journalist with 25 non-fiction books to her credit. She has also contributed to a wide-variety of publications including The Official Heroes Magazine, 24 Magazine, Model & Collector’s Mart, Practical Wargamer, TV Film Memorabilia, Action TV and Collect It!

When we were very young

2012-02-02T13:26:16Z

Even the most beautiful Disney Princess was once a chubby-cheeked little toddler, and the new Animator Doll collection from Disney allows you to see exactly what they looked like back then.

Thanks to the imagination and skill of two of Walt Disney Animation Studio’s most talented animators, Mark Henn and Glen Keane, Disney Princess fans and doll collectors can now see a whole side to the beautiful princesses.

Cute versions of all the favourites – Ariel, Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Tiana and Snow White – are all available now from the Disney Store and show a clever resemblance to the famous characters that they become in later life. The little dolls each come with a special pet too and are priced around £20.

Up-cycled vintage board game sketchbooks

2012-02-02T13:26:24Z

The clever people at environmentally consious company Ellie Ellie have taken recycling to a new level and finally found a use for all those old board games that have been piling up in people’s cupboards.

Many board games last for years, of course, but eventually their useful life will come to an end, either due to families growing up, pieces getting lost or simply new editions becoming available. By recycling the boards, Ellie Ellie has created a beautiful new line of sketchbooks and given tired old games the opportunity to provide fun and entertainment all over again.

Paying homage to the classics, the sketchbooks are bound in covers made from original boards of games like Monopoly, Cluedo and Scrabble. Each handmade sketchbook is priced around £19.50 and contains about 50 heavyweight pages of 100% recycled paper.

Meccano 2012 preview

2012-01-27T11:56:06Z

The new year is bringing a new strategy for Meccano, as the company embraces licensed properties for the first time. Having recently launched a range of Tintin products (more on that soon), 2012 will see Meccano also introduce Sonic the Hedgehog, Rabbids and Gears of War sets.

Sonic will be as speedy as ever in Meccano form, with sets including a Green Hill playset (just a mention of that should be enough to get videogamers of a certain age all nostalgic).

Gears of War will see the introduction of a different building system to recreate vehicles like the Armadillo APC, Centaur Tank and King Raven.

What might be considered Meccano’s core values are not being neglected. The Construction, Build & Play, Turbo, Space Chaos and Multi Models lines will all see new additions, and the company has already enjoyed success, with the new Advanced Toolbox (pictured) named as the best new toy in the Construction category at The Toy Fair.

“Our Construction Toolboxes are designed to engage beginners through to advanced builders,” said Meccano’s Sue Barratt, “getting incrementally more complex as you work your way through the four sets from Easy to Expert. Add to this the exceptionally useful toolbox itself, which keeps everything in one place, and you have a product that ticks all the boxes.

“These are exciting times for Meccano. We are taking our considerable brand heritage and fusing it with some of the hottest licensed properties around. “